Essential Phone skipping Android Oreo 8.0, will soon receive 8.1

The beta saga continues

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Essential Phone users have been longing for Android Oreo to arrive after it missed its 2017 target. Thankfully, the latest word from the company says that it aims to push the update out via OTA in a few weeks.

Essential claims that, through its long-running beta program, it discovered “several stability issues” in the core operating system update, Thus it will be putting the work in to issue the updated version to users.

It seems that the release of Oreo on the PH-1 was days away, but anxious fans might now be waiting closer to a month to get a taste.

The good news is that if you’ve got a knack for tinkering and want to preview the latest beta build before it arrives, you can join the beta program here. But, be warned that not only does it require sideloading, it’s not going to be as stable as the build you’re currently running.

What does this say for Oreo 8.0?

Essential brought up that Oreo 8.0 had stability issues, though it’s not clear if these are issues specific to the PH-1, or if they also apply to any other phone that’s having the latest operating system ported.

While the former is an understandable position for a small team that’s trying to deliver on expectations, the latter could spell trouble for devices that are still waiting for the Oreo update, of which there are many.

We previously haven’t heard of such instability problems with Google’s latest operating system, but we’ll be reaching out to manufacturers to see if this is widespread or an isolated case.